Gotta love the 80's

Am selling the cruiser per my other posts.

But last night and today it was as always cruiser to the rescue.

My daily driver is a high miles golf tdi which has been very reliable since i have owned it. Until last night when the fuel pump decided enough was enough. Nothing to hint a problem other than 2 warning coughs then the car switched off and that was that. thankfully it was in a car park when it died.


So the trust cruiser which had done about 12 miles in the last 3 or 4 months fired up first turn of the key. happily towed the golf back to my mates yard awaiting new parts. and now the trusty old cruiser is doing several hundred miles running around today.

as ever never misses a beat, ever. Doesn't handle like the Golf, is not as quiet or as quick or as fuel miserly BUT it always, always runs. Vorsprung durch technique rescued by 21 year old technology. Gotta love the lack of electrickery bits to fail on the cruisers.

Great post Adrian, I can imagine the smile on your face when she fired up on a flick!

Nothing's foolproof, but the 80 must come close. I was browsing utube last night, UK Motorway traffic cops, programmes from 2013 or thereabouts, but there was one tailback of five miles or more caused by a vehicle immobilised in the fast lane of the M62.
Guess what it was.... Yes, a new RangeRoamer! The police were not vey complementary. It wouldn't start and the handbrake button kept locking in, it took ages just to get on the recovery truck.

Well done Adrian's truck, he'll miss you when you're gone....

Thanks Clive.

I knew someone whose new Range Rover Did something similar caused by a window fault. 80 mph to limp mode without warning. Stupid really

Been smiling all day so far driving the truck. Made me realise how nice it is whereas the golf I don think about the drive.

Plus I can find it easily in big car parks....

adrianr said:

Plus I can find it easily in big car parks....

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i use my wifes 330 alot at the moment and this is the worst thing walking out and going where the bloody car? at least with the 80 you can see it half a mile above someone else. or even the arial if parked next to a van.

I have a couple of LR D3's on my books, the classic problems that turn up on a regular basis are:

Gearbox Alzheimer's:

ECU forgets what gear you are in, no problem if you shift from 6th down the 4th for a fast overtake, just before you go back into 5th the ECU has one of it's forgetful moments, realises it cannot remember what gear your in and dumps the engine into Limp Home Mode....great if you did not get hit by the oncoming traffic, or hit up the rear by the truck you have just passed!

Dusty Handbrake Syndrome:

LR handbook clearly states the electric handbrake assembly has to be stripped and cleaned every FIFTY off road miles WTF?

Not a lot of good when one of my customer travels a couple of kilometres up and down a track each day to his house!

How High Are We Syndrome?

120 KPH on the Autovia and the ECU thinks it is in 'Off Road' mode, no problem, ECU simply drops the speed to a nice safe 40 KPH!

I have driven both of these vehicles on a number of occasions, and can say they are smooth, fast, and very capable vehicles, I would love to splash out on one tomorrow but, I simply could not afford the continuous repair bills. One of my customers spent around 8,000 euros in the last 30 months?

Clutches, front differentials, gearbox ECU, suspension compressor, ride height sensors, air bag on suspension leg, differential wading pipe upgrade WTF? You would have thought LR would have got a differential breather right by now!

My 80 sat waiting for over a year for a transmission, turned the key and starts first turn!

IIRC there are 27 ECU's on these bloody things? If the D3 sits for more than three weeks it simply will not start, the various ECU's in standby mode sucking the life out of the battery, Chelsea tractor......definitely.

regards

Dave

Ah yes, the achilles heal of many a new vehicle.....electronic everything!!! Then come the 'dealer only' repair bills, what a nightmare.

Towpack said:

Ah yes, the achilles heal of many a new vehicle.....electronic everything!!! Then come the 'dealer only' repair bills, what a nightmare.

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I agree, LR recommend REMOVING THE BODY to change major components on the V6 diesel, I have managed every repair thus far without the body off but nothing is a five minute job, same as the cam belts, the front one is a doddle, the rear one for the pump is a PITA, a bit like a gynaecologist wallpapering his hallway through the letter box.

regards

Dave

Dave 2000 said:

I agree, LR recommend REMOVING THE BODY to change major components on the V6 diesel, I have managed every repair thus far without the body off but nothing is a five minute job, same as the cam belts, the front one is a doddle, the rear one for the pump is a PITA, a bit like a gynaecologist wallpapering his hallway through the letter box.

regards

Dave

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To be honest for the time it takes to lift the body off, in my view and experience IS the way forward with sorting a truck out. In the point of view of welding inner sills, body mounts... restoration of rusty chassis etc.


Im doing this at the moment and never get to areas with it on the chassis.

Sorry if going off topic. .

Iwan

My mates BMW M5 had £25000 in warranty work in the 18 months he had it. NO doubt a stunning amazing car, and fast beyond belief but dogged with many gremlins. His Range Rover was better but not by much.

Dave - it is amazing how many things Land / Range Rover say body off to fix. I helped a friend a few months back change the inlet manifold and rocker cover on the left bank on a v6 diesel sport. Land Rover said body off. He did it without but two of the bolts were sooo troublesome and there is no room to get the job done. Its fixed now but 3 small spanners were lost and left down the back of the engine and we simply could not get to them or even see them. Wallpapering you hallway through the letterbox is a great take on what you end up doing.

Perhaps the designers have never seen a spanner or worked on the cars they put together.

iwan_t24 said:

To be honest for the time it takes to lift the body off, in my view and experience IS the way forward with sorting a truck out. In the point of view of welding inner sills, body mounts... restoration of rusty chassis etc.

View attachment 20084
Im doing this at the moment and never get to areas with it on the chassis.

Sorry if going off topic. .

Iwan

Click to expand...

I agree but, if you have to lift the body off a 7 year old Discovery to repair rust you might as well scrap it!

@adrianr

Over the years cars have become very reliable and many parts last the life of the vehicle, in come the electronics which meant back to the dealers, when they (the dealers) were forced to release data to third party companies so they could market code reader (not just OBD) they found that the small mechanics businesses (like my own) were still taking their business they went a step further, i.e. remove the body, absolutely kin ridiculous!

I had 'Disco' before my present LC, it was fixable and not too expensive to do so, if I won the lottery would I buy a LR, no way!! And to add a little credence to this, the local LR garage is taking in all other marques of vehicles to keep their mechanics busy, not because the LR's are so reliable but, because they cannot sell any!

regards

Dave

My first Golf (diesel) was unreliable from day 1. It packed up completely after 20,000 miles after 3 1/2 years of unreliable service. VW wanted £5000 to fix it. So I bought a new petrol golf. This went gone wrong after 12months and only 5000 miles. The engine cooling fan would not turn off and the touch screen showed an unrelated fault, I forget what.

The dealers treat you like some sort of disease when you tell them their cars are no good.

Crap product and crap service for me at VW Stourbridge.

If I knew how to use Facebook I'd book them in for a damn good service.

Many of my customers (in particular 4x4 owners) ask why I have such an elderly albeit in good condition car 4x4?

Simple, I am in the middle of nowhere, and there just happens to be a thief nearby. He steals BOTH batteries, the alternator and the starter motor. A few minutes with a spanner and a quick push and I can drive home or until the fuel runs out, THAT is why I drive older vehicles.

A single crank angle sensor fails on a D3 and you are going NOWHERE! I have looked for a simple 'limp home mode' selection for the sensor and cannot find one, if there is no way to bypass that sensor then you are well and truly f..f...f...flipping unhappy!

Electronics have their place in modern vehicles but, you MUST be able to circumnavigate the ones that prevent the engine from running and getting you home.

regards

Dave

Just want to put the word out there chaps.... all of you looking after your 80s please keep at it. In about a year or so i'm going to be in the market for one.

"Electronics have their place in modern vehicles but, you MUST be able to circumnavigate the ones that prevent the engine from running and getting you home."

I agree, especially with a 4x4. There should be a suitable large lever, (cable operated) that bypasses all the bells and whistles when required.

On a side note imo landrovers back in the day were a well engineered long lasting vehicle.

Yes there should be a get me home lever.

On to VW there is a relay (number 19) - the early design overheats and fails stopping the entire car - relay 19 power most of the vital functions of the car, and it wont start but will crank. When it fails you get a bunch of strange faults being logged. Thankfully you can remove two fuses and put a jumper in place to get you home, but only if you know about it and have something to make the jumper from.

Frank - thats terrible. So far apart from a few things to fix ive been very pleased with my £560 2003 Golf TDi. Had full history but many faults when i got it. It has been very cheap to fix thanks to plenty of parts in breakers. Perhaps the older Mark 4s are more reliable since they are less elecky based than the newer models.

Bring back levers and cables please.
Ive driven back from the south coast using a length of string for a throttle cable before. cant do that on a fly by wire system.

The early Golf's were very reliable. My 1989 Audi Coupe did 240,000 miles with hardly any trouble.

Why do people who own a land cruiser buy anything else that isnt Japanese? I mean do you wipe your bottom with your left hand when the right hand always does it?

Because as much as we all love them, they aren't the best at everything.

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